Takahe | 台北市立動物園資訊網

Teethingtroublesinparadise.WhenGeoffreyOrbellrediscoveredtakahein1948therewereperhapsasmanyas500birdsremaining.Butbythemid-1950s, ...

When Dr Walter Mantell formally described a large, attractively-plumaged new species of rail in 1851 from only the second specimen captured, he wrote: “It is unlikely that any further living specimens will be found.” Indeed, only two further individuals were taken last century, and the bird was officially considered extinct for 50 years—until an Invercargill GP filmed birds in Fiordland in 1948. Yet despite 50 years of careful management since, the species is probably scarcer now than when it was rediscovered.

On the Fourth Floor of Dunedin’s Otago Museum, above the display of ships and ocean voyages, lies a sombre animal mausoleum—a gallery of extinction. ...